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It just depends on whether a property's decline in valuation is due to market forces or behind the door deals by the select few in power to save face and keep an old friend in business w/out "taking any more monies from the taxpayers" as they did/do in Shorewood.

1st....Pump ~$200,000 of taxpayers monies into one business-Harley's ( whose owner just happens to be the president of that communities BID), as well as ~$200,000 more into the apartment building that houses said business..H all free and clear courtesy of Village President Guy Johson, CDA head Pete Petrie et al.

THEN.. a couple of years later, 2012, re-assess 3575 N. Oaland Ave @ just $1,500,000 and dropping the property taxes paid on this property from $79,000 per year to just $39,000....This, when apartment buildings are the hottest and really only viable sector in the real estate market, the apartment building previously sold for ~$3,400,000 a few years earlier and immediately had $1,500,000 invested in improvements/upgrades, is currently 99% occupied and generates between $500-600,000 per year in revenue.

There's more than 1 way for a community to lose out on property tax revenue which is also used, in part, to fund local school budgets which are increasingly under budget constraints/facing cutbacks.

I'd just be happy if (and when) a TIF gets paid back...and not given an extension, which seems to be happening more and more lately. But I was glad to see some in Milwaukee have been paying off the funding.

Midtown Center (aka Capitol Court) is one such example. They are LUCKY they got a positive cash flow out of that...before LOWES, MARSHALLS, and even APPLEBEE's closed their doors.